Why is it a Mortal Sin to eat meat on Fridays during Lent?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Angel_Hazard
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Angel_Hazard

Guest
I would like to explain this to my friend, but I don’t have enough information to really explain it right. What is the history behind this tradition? How do I explain this to my protestant friend?

Thanks
 
Jesus gave up his flesh for us on Good Friday, therefore during this penitential season of Lent we give up flesh meat on Fridays.

Jesus established his church with lawful authority over us. Therefore, if the church binds us to a particular discipline it carries Christ’s authority. The sin is not in eating meat, the sin is in disobedience to Christ through his Church.
 
Lent is a sorrowful period in the liturgical year, because it is the season in waiting for the Passion of Our Lord. As you probably know, Jesus was crucified on Friday. We fast on Fridays to remember the pain and sorrow of the Crucifixion. The Church has made this a theological requirement. Some Catholics that are more traditonal may fast on every Friday during the year.
 
ILOVEYOUMYLADY said:
Lent is a sorrowful period in the liturgical year, because it is the season in waiting for the Passion of Our Lord. As you probably know, Jesus was crucified on Friday. We fast on Fridays to remember the pain and sorrow of the Crucifixion. The Church has made this a theological requirement. Some Catholics that are more traditonal may fast on every Friday during the year.
Click to expand...
Just to clarify, we do not have to fast on all Fridays just Good Friday. We are then required to continue the fast through Easter Vigil. So we fast on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil. We abstaine from meat on all Fridays.

usccb.org/lent/fast.shtml
 
A couple of things.

The fish was an ancient symbol scratched on doorways by the first Christians to mark places of worship.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys
Ichthys can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of several words. It compiles to “Jesus Christ God’s son Savior” in ancient Greek “Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ”, Iēsous Christos, Theou Huios, Sōtēr.
Click to expand...
Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for “Jesus”.
Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστός), Greek for “anointed”.
Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), Greek for “God’s”, the genitive case of Θεóς, Theos, Greek for “God”.
Upsilon (u) is the first letter of huios (Υἱός), Greek for “Son”.
Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for “Savior”.
Historians say the 20th-century use of the ichthys motif is an adaptation based on an Early Christian symbol which included a small cross for the eye or the Greek letters “ΙΧΘΥΣ”.
Click to expand...
An ancient adaptation of ichthys is a wheel which contains the letters ΙΧΘΥΣ superimposed such that the result resembles an eight-spoked wheel.
Click to expand...
In addition, poor people can’t afford red meat (kill a chicken you kill the egg layer, kill a calf and you kill a milk cow, etc).

Fish, eggs, cheese, vegatable protein is meat a poor person eats.
 
It is not a mortal sin to eat meat accidentally in Lent. (Refusing to take the proper care to prevent it may be a venial sin, or may not.)

What is a mortal sin is to do either of the following:
  • decide that despite Our Lord’s three hours of agony on the cross on good Friday, you are going to eat that hamburger anyway
  • decide that despite the fact that the Magisterium has been left to us as a great gift by Jesus, you refuse to submit to its authority to say you shouldn’t eat meat 8 days a year*
The sin is either refusing what is really a small penance because you don’t think that Christ’s sacrifice is worth it, or because you refuse to obey the legitimate authority of His bride, the Church, which has asked you to make this small gesture of penance.

I don’t know if that explanation would really help a non-Catholic or not. But the point is, it isn’t totally about the meat, it is about the attitude. 🙂

–Jen

*Actually in the case of this year, only 7 days, because the Solemnity of the Annunciation falls on a Friday this year, and abstinence is not required on a Solemnity (a special holy celebration) per Canon 1251
 
People may need reminded that Friday commenorates the day of Jesus’ Passion and that He died about 3 p.m.
 
It is a mortal sin to willingly break a promise (that’s the same as lying).

When we are confirmed, we take on certain promises, including that we will abide by the precepts of the Church.

That means that we will abide by whatever precepts the Church happens to impose. If the Church today says we must wear black on Fridays in Lent, we must do so, because we have promised to do whatever the Church expects of us.

There is nothing inherently sinful about wearing blue on Fridays in Lent. But if the Church expects us to wear black, and we have promised to obey the Church, then it is sinful to wear blue - not because wearing blue is a sin, but because we have broken our promise, which IS a sin.

If you promise a friend that you will help him tow his car on Saturday, and you willfully ignore your promise, you have sinned (you lied to your friend). It is the same for the precepts of the Church.
 
It’s not a mortal sin.

It takes 3 things to make a mortal sin.


  1. *]Grave matter
    *]Knowledge
    *]Full consent of the will.

    It fails in point #1, though there could be circumstances where due to intent it could get there, but generally…it’s not, especially since it’s common for someone to forget that’s it’s Friday or what time of night (after midnight for instance) it is, in which case it would fail in point #3.
 
Yes, so its a mortal sin to eat meats on Friday’s during Lent.

If you mistakedly eat meat, or forget, then of course its not a mortal sin, because you were unknowing, but it doesn’t mean you can finish the rest of your Angus Double pounder, you’re gonna have to sacrifice it and throw it away or save it for Saturday!
 
It is a mortal sin to deliberately eat meat on Fridays during Lent, knowing that the Church requires us to abstain.

Why? Not because eating meat is a bad thing. Because the Church, in her wisdom and in the power which (Scripturally speaking) was given to it in Matthew Chapter 18 with the power to 'bind and loose), has determined that this sacrifice is beneficial for us and asks us to submit ourselves in obedience.

It is therefore the WILLFUL DISOBEDIENCE which is the sin.

It is a mortal sin if done in deliberate disobedience because it would then be done with full knowledge (that the Church requires this), full consent (deliberately doing so, not 'accidentally), and the 'grave matter" (the Church has stated it is grave matter.)

It is NOT a mortal sin if it is done by accident or there are other extenuating circumstances as determined by the Church itself.

But the Universal Norm of the Church is that Catholics, in a spirit of penance and obedience, are to abstain from meat on all Fridays.

In the U.S. the bishops have gained an indult so this is only listed as abstinence required for LENTEN Fridays.

In other countries there is no requirement save a penance ‘of some kind’.

Again, it is not the eating of the meat which is the sin but the disobedience to the Law of the Church AS MANDATED BY ONE’S LOCAL BISHOP (bishops having the power to amend this under the ‘bind and loose’ above) if properly submitted to the Church authority and granted.
 
I do not doubt that we should try to avoid all sin, but I am struggling trying to find where the Church pronounces the that violation of the Lenten penitential obligations are a grave matter. I believe they are, but I can’t defend that position. At this point it is only a hunch.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top